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Liverpool's owners gamble by warning manager Benitez: You've no money for new players
Last updated at 15:42pm on 16.12.07
Liverpool's American owners, Tom Hicks and George Gillett, will today take a huge gamble by telling manager Rafael Benitez he has no money for the January transfer window.
The multi-millionaires will break the news to Benitez at long-awaited showdown talks after Liverpool's crunch Premier League clash with Manchester United at Anfield.
It will be a huge blow to the Spaniard, who has asked for money to bring in a top-quality central defender as cover for Jamie Carragher and Daniel Agger, and to tie up Argentine midfielder Javier Mascherano on a permanent deal.
Benitez has a history of falling out with club owners. He left Valencia despite winning the Spanish championship and the UEFA Cup and will now have to decide whether to stay at Anfield on the Americans' terms.
Hicks and Gillett have decided that their current priority is to press ahead with plans for a new 70,000-capacity stadium at Stanley Park and have been advised that buying players in the summer transfer market represents better value for money than the January window.
But the long, ongoing struggle to sort out the financial future of the club is also a factor in their reluctance to release funds.
Banking sources believe that while American finance house Wachovia have pulled back from negotiations, the Royal Bank of Scotland, who lent Gillett and Hicks most of the money to buy the club, are considering a deal which would see Liverpool lumbered with around £300million of debt. Servicing that would cost up to £30m per year, leaving precious little for transfers.
The uncertainty will anger fans, many of whom demonstrated their support for the manager in his row with the owners. They will also be appalled at the prospect of Gillett and Hicks transferring the debts they incurred in buying the club on to the club itself. The money they borrowed was guaranteed against their personal assets but now they want their debts, plus capital to start building the stadium, to be
Reader views (2)
Cant believe this! Benitez can well resign and Liverpool will struggle.
- Anon, Australia
If this is true then Liverpool FC have made a huge mistake to go Mr Hicks and Gillett. They should have gone with Dubai group. At least when they say something, they will not back out later because it is not honourable to do so.
If only Liverpool's previous board could see pass through the fact that the Dubai group is owned by an Arab and considered only about the future of the club, Dubai group would probably be running Liverpool now and we would never have to go through these uncertainties about having no fund for transfer or building a 70,000 capacity stadium.
- Patrick, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia
